Manitowoc

Here’s a shot of the new 3900T Manitowoc truck crane lifting the front end of an old gas electric car for maintenance on the power truck. The 3900T first appeared in 1963 and was the biggest of its type at the time. I recently built this and rigged it with a 60 ton block and an eight part line. It is show here working with a 60 foot basic boom at about a 28 foot radius. In this position it can safely lift 50 tons with the spreader bar although lifting the heavy end of the car is should be within 40 tons.
More pictures will posted soon making other heavy picks.

Here’s some shots of the work in progress on the Manitowoc 3900 T truck crane. I have admired this machine since it first came out in 1963, fine Manitowoc engineering and design and the first six axle carrier although Hendrickson was building one for American Hoist at the same time they were building Manitowoc’s.

Here’s some excellent modeling work by heavy haul enthusiast Ed Sweeney. Ed has a large collection of models he’s built of the various well known owners of extra large tractors and trailers of the 1950s and 60s.
Thanks, Ed, for sending these images and letting me post them on the web site.

UPDATE - I've had a great response to this and it's going to be a bigger project than I expected so the reservation period is being extended until the end of March.

A run of these Manitowoc 3900 60 to 100 ton crane kits will be made by May 2008. For those of you who wish to get a crane at that time please send in your reservation with payment information. Download the pdf of the promo and order form at the bottom of the page.

For those of you who ordered this six months ago your wait is almost over. All the parts are made and packaged. The only thing left to be done is the final editing of the instructions. I hope to start mailing these out to you about September 23, 2008. The image here is the fifth 3900 I've built. It is painted and lettered for a large east coast contractor based in Maine and will be delivered tomorrow to the Boothbay Railway Village Model Railroaders to be displayed on their new layout at the museum.